Counterpoint: making things less annoying for neurotypicals years later is less important than allowing people with learning disorders and other related disabilities to easier keep up with their peers and build familiarity with the tools like the ones they’re going to rely on for the rest of their lives.
To be all egocentric and stuff, I’ll use myself as an only tangentially related example:
Growing up with undiagnosed ADHD, I had horrendous fine motor control coupled with a profound difficulty with retaining focus on anything that saps my already chronically low dopamine levels, which made anything I have to write by hand much shorter and of much lesser quality than what I’m otherwise capable of.
Being part of the first group of students to be allowed to do our written exams on a (pre-vetted and not connected to the internet) computer helped me IMMENSELY without giving me any unfair advantage.
No you are talking about using a tool to help/supplement your learning. That is good.
I am responding to people saying they should never learn anything in the first place because a calculator could do it for them.
There ARE some things (like in stats) that you will just use a calculator for because it’s a HUGE waste of time otherwise (like Standard Deviation especially), but refusing to put in effort on things like multiplication, which will get used like 5 times in one problem, means you are taking yourself out of the problem 5 different times to use something else. For the ADHD kid there’s no way your focus is staying on that problem if you have to go elsewhere (especially to a phone which has infinite distractions) 5 different times.
Then when we need to use the actual concept to do something else, like factoring, those who actually learned and know the patterns will be able to solve the puzzle almost instantly. What multiplies to 64 and adds to 16 SHOULD be an easy 8 and 8, but on a calculator you’re doing 64/1=64 1+64≠16, 64/2=32 2+32≠16, 64/3 has a decimal so no, 64/4=16 4+16≠16, etc until you find the answer that works. (Which is fine, if you need to, and generally how I will START teaching it, but again the reason for doing it using the brain is so you learn those patterns and can then not have to remove yourself from the problem but actively engage in the problem by trying to use the patterns or things you’ve learned)
Not really a counterpoint, they’re talking about how a person can make their life easier by learning something. Your example is analogous.
You learned a different way to record the written word to make life easier. OP is talking about learning a different way to calculate numbers, to make life easier. They’re the same.
Counterpoint: making things less annoying for neurotypicals years later is less important than allowing people with learning disorders and other related disabilities to easier keep up with their peers and build familiarity with the tools like the ones they’re going to rely on for the rest of their lives.
To be all egocentric and stuff, I’ll use myself as an only tangentially related example:
Growing up with undiagnosed ADHD, I had horrendous fine motor control coupled with a profound difficulty with retaining focus on anything that saps my already chronically low dopamine levels, which made anything I have to write by hand much shorter and of much lesser quality than what I’m otherwise capable of.
Being part of the first group of students to be allowed to do our written exams on a (pre-vetted and not connected to the internet) computer helped me IMMENSELY without giving me any unfair advantage.
No you are talking about using a tool to help/supplement your learning. That is good.
I am responding to people saying they should never learn anything in the first place because a calculator could do it for them.
There ARE some things (like in stats) that you will just use a calculator for because it’s a HUGE waste of time otherwise (like Standard Deviation especially), but refusing to put in effort on things like multiplication, which will get used like 5 times in one problem, means you are taking yourself out of the problem 5 different times to use something else. For the ADHD kid there’s no way your focus is staying on that problem if you have to go elsewhere (especially to a phone which has infinite distractions) 5 different times.
Then when we need to use the actual concept to do something else, like factoring, those who actually learned and know the patterns will be able to solve the puzzle almost instantly. What multiplies to 64 and adds to 16 SHOULD be an easy 8 and 8, but on a calculator you’re doing 64/1=64 1+64≠16, 64/2=32 2+32≠16, 64/3 has a decimal so no, 64/4=16 4+16≠16, etc until you find the answer that works. (Which is fine, if you need to, and generally how I will START teaching it, but again the reason for doing it using the brain is so you learn those patterns and can then not have to remove yourself from the problem but actively engage in the problem by trying to use the patterns or things you’ve learned)
Dyscalculia exists. Does that fact that make your argument ableist?
Not really a counterpoint, they’re talking about how a person can make their life easier by learning something. Your example is analogous.
You learned a different way to record the written word to make life easier. OP is talking about learning a different way to calculate numbers, to make life easier. They’re the same.